Summer Heat Wave of Paid Leave Amendments Continues in Minnesota

On June 14, 2025, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed SF 17, the state’s omnibus jobs and workforce bill. The omnibus bill amends both the state’s paid sick leave law and the forthcoming paid family medical leave program (Minnesota Paid Leave) in meaningful yet limited ways. 

Paid Sick Leave

Effective July 1, 2025: 

• Employers are permitted to “reasonably require[]” employees to give notice of their need to use unforeseeable earned sick and safe time. Previously, employees were only required to give notice as soon as practicable.
• Employers may require reasonable documentation that the earned sick and safe time is used for a covered use under the law for absences of three or more consecutive scheduled workdays instead of four or more.
• Even though employers cannot require employees to seek or find a replacement worker to cover the hours they are using as earned sick and safe time, they can allow employees to voluntarily trade shifts in lieu of using leave.

Effective January 1, 2026: 

• Employers may provide earned sick and safe time to an employee in advance of accrual based on the number of hours the employee is anticipated to work for the remaining portion of an accrual year (e.g., an employee hired mid-year for a 20-hour-per-week job by an employer whose accrual year is a calendar year may be advanced the amount of time they are expected to accrue working 20 hours per week in the six remaining months of the year). If, however, the employee works more hours than anticipated, the employer must provide additional earned sick and safe time to make up the difference.

Employers may want to consider making a mid-year update to their Minnesota paid sick leave policies to take advantage of the more favorable provisions on advance notice, documentation, and shift swapping, especially if they are already dusting off policies to align with mid-year changes in other states (e.g., Nebraska, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington). Otherwise, Minnesota should be added to list of year-end paid sick leave policy updates (along with Connecticut, Oregon, Pittsburgh, and Washington).

Minnesota Paid Leave

• When Minnesota Paid Leave takes effect January 1, 2026, the premium rate will be 0.88%, split between employees and their employers.
• By July 31, 2026, and July 31 of each subsequent calendar year, the commissioner may adjust the annual premium rates, provided that the total annual premium can be no higher than 1.1% of employees’ wages (compared to the current 1.2% cap). 

The modifications to Minnesota Paid Leave should not impact employers’ strategies for implementing Minnesota Paid Leave within their organization beginning January 1, 2026. However, with approximately six months to go until the program is launched, now is a good time for employers to confirm they are set to comply with both the payroll contribution and leave protections available to employees under the law.